Handicapping Apple’s quarterly earnings and revenue: Q3 2014

Just because Tim Cook prefers to be straight with analysts — offering them more “realistic” revenue guidance than the low-ball numbers Steve Jobs used to feed them — doesn’t mean Apple can’t deliver earnings surprises anymore.

Apple doesn’t give EPS guidance anymore, but for the quarter that ended June 28 the company told the Street to expect revenues to come in between $36 billion and $38 billion.

The consensus among the more than two dozen analysts polled by Fortune — 15 Wall Street professionals and 12 amateurs — is that Apple will report revenues of $38.4 billion. The amateurs, as usual, are more bullish than the pros, although the gap between the two has narrowed considerably over the past two and a half years.

We’ll find out who was closest to the mark when Apple reports its fiscal Q3 2014 earnings after the markets close on Tuesday.